To meet the demand for wireless data traffic, which has increased since deployment of 4th-generation (4G) communication systems, efforts have been made to develop an improved 5th-generation (5G) or pre-5G communication system. Therefore, the 5G or pre-5G communication system is also called a ‘beyond 4G network’ or a ‘post long term evolution (LTE) system’.
The 5G communication system is considered to be implemented in higher frequency (mmWave) bands, e.g., 60 GHz bands, so as to accomplish higher data rates. To decrease propagation loss of the radio waves and increase the transmission distance, the beamforming, massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), full dimensional MIMO (FD-MIMO), array antenna, an analog beam forming, and large scale antenna techniques are discussed in 5G communication systems.
In addition, in 5G communication systems, development for system network improvement is under way based on advanced small cells, cloud radio access networks (RANs), ultra-dense networks, device-to-device (D2D) communication, wireless backhaul, moving network, cooperative communication, coordinated multi-points (CoMP), reception-end interference cancellation, and the like.
In the 5G system, hybrid frequency shift keying (FSK) and quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) (FQAM) and sliding window superposition coding (SWSC) as an advanced coding modulation (ACM), and filter bank multi carrier (FBMC), non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), and sparse code multiple access (SCMA) as an advanced access technology have been developed.
There exist at least 2 solutions which are available today to connect to Wi-Fi radio access when preferred by a user.
In solution 1, a user needs to keep both Wi-Fi radio connection and mobile data connection (e.g., cellular radio connection) turned on all the time on the device. This means user preference settings on a device user interface (UI) for both Wi-Fi and mobile data is ON. When a device is in a Wi-Fi coverage of a known access point (AP), the device connects to the known AP as long as the device is in the Wi-Fi coverage area of the AP. When the device moves outside the Wi-Fi coverage area, a data session or internet access can happen through mobile data access on the cellular coverage provided by either a 4G or 3G network. Normally, the device connects to the known Wi-Fi AP when the device is in a good coverage area of Wi-Fi radio access. And when the Wi-Fi connection is completely lost, the device can automatically avail mobile data through cellular radio access without explicitly notifying the user. However, this solution results in heavy draining of battery (e.g., continuous scanning for new Wi-Fi APs) when connection to current Wi-Fi AP is lost.
In solution 2, a user needs to remember to manually switch on/off Wi-Fi user preference on the device at the right time. That is, the user needs to turn-on Wi-Fi radio connection on the device when the user enters the coverage of known Wi-Fi AP and turn-off Wi-Fi radio connection on the device when the user moves out of the coverage of connected Wi-Fi access to save battery drain. This solution has the following issues: a) lacks good user experience i.e., the user has to manually perform switch on/off every time, and b) the user may end up paying higher data charges for mobile data if the user forgets to utilize known Wi-Fi radio access where it was available.
User expectation is to use Wi-Fi radio capability on his/her device most of the time for data session and/or internet access when Wi-Fi radio access is available. Usage of mobile data (i.e., data session and/or internet access on a mobile device through cellular radio access technology like 4G LTE/worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX), 3G high speed packet access (HSPA)/universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) etc.) on his/her device through cellular radio access is preferred when Wi-Fi radio access is not available to him/her. In overlapping coverage scenarios, Wi-Fi radio access is usually preferred over mobile data (i.e. cellular radio access through 4G or 3G) because Wi-Fi is supposed to provide faster access and high data rates at a lower cost compared to similar data rates through the cellular radio access.
To achieve the above mentioned user expectation, existing solutions either incur significant battery power drain or are not elegant from user experience perspective or both.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present disclosure.